Everybody assumed that when California started sending out State IOUs instead of checks for income tax refunds , it was a sign of the State's dire financial status. Now buried in the middle of a story about President Obama trying to provide more incentives for retirement savings, we find this nugget of fool's gold at The Hill: President Barack Obama announced a series of policy changes Saturday aimed at making it easier for Americans to save money for retirement. Among the changes are expanded access to 401k plans, small tax policy changes and a pledge to let workers convert vacation days into retirement savings. The president framed the new policies as a response to the recession.... Second, a checkbox will be added to tax forms letting Americans receive their tax refund as a savings bond. The neat part about this--from the State's perspective--is that not only will millions of unwary Americans bite on this tactic voluntarily, it will have established the principle that th...

So the US government took your tax dollars to use for Cash for Clunkers, but you thought, "Hey, I'm getting a great deal here." Until you find out--usually well after you've made the deal-- that the Feds, and possibly your State, are going to count that Clunker rebate check as taxable income : The Cash For Clunkers program is adding to the activity at treasurers' offices all around South Dakota. First, people were asking for proof of ownership, so they could show they owned their vehicle for a full year, allowing them to cash it in. Now, they'll be returning to register their new vehicle. And when they do, new owners need to bring every bit of paperwork provided to them by their dealer. "That means they need their title, their damage disclosure, their bill of sale and the dealers have 30 days to get that to them," Minnehaha County Treasurer Pam Nelson said. But many of those cashing in on the clunkers program are surprised when they get to the treas...

Every time there is a school referendum I hear seniors complaining that they should not be paying for a public school system they do not use because they are on fixed incomes and cannot afford higher taxes. Of course, those same seniors are more than willing to accept the fact that millions of the parents of school-age children who cannot afford to pay health insurance premiums are forking out 3% of their salaries (matched by 3% from their employers) to pay for Medicare. Maybe real reform would start by letting people keep their own money and make their own choices with it. Oh. No. Can't do that because it's selfish and un-American and it makes far more sense to have the government take $2,500 in school taxes from an 85-year-old and $2,500 in Medicare taxes from a thirty-year-old and pay bureaucrats to swap the money around. Yeah. Libertarians are so crazy.

Even the New York Times cannot shake off the idea that this is ... not just ridiculous but positively Orwellian: It seemed like a good idea at the time. Ten years ago, with yoga transforming into a ubiquitous pop culture phenomenon from a niche pursuit, yoga teachers banded together to create a voluntary online registry of schools meeting new standards for training instructors. But that list — which now includes nearly 1,000 yoga schools nationwide, many of them tiny — is being put to a use for which it was never intended. It is the key document in a crackdown that pits free-spirited yogis against lumbering state governments, which, unlike those they are trying to regulate, are not always known for their flexibility. Citing laws that govern vocational schools, like those for hairdressers and truck drivers, regulators have begun to require licenses for yoga schools that train instructors, with all the fees, inspections and paperwork that entails. While confrontations have played out di...

From the Obama Transition Site : Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama-Biden long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief. Now let's get this straight. We're going to place a windfall profits tax on energy companies. We're going to pass out that money to American families as an energy rebate. American families will take that money and pay the energy companies. Hmmm. Let's try this in playground . Johnny has a protection racket. We're going to charge him five dollars in a windfall profits tax. We are going to give each of his 20 victims a quarter each. Then each of those victims will give Johnny a quarter to pay for not being beaten up this week. Johnny will have been punished, and the victims wi...